Rule-based system and method for managing the provisioning of user applications on limited-resource and/or wireless devices

ABSTRACT

A system and a method for charging for directed provisioning and using of dynamic content to limited resource devices, through an integrated platform which handles all aspects of aggregation and management of such dynamic content. The integrated platform features a billing system for performing billing actions. The billing system of the present invention interacts with other components of the integrated platform in order to be able to determine the charge for particular triggering events, such as downloading dynamic content, and/or events which are actually triggered by the application itself. The charge is preferably determined according to one of a plurality of rules, as applied by a rules engine of the billing system. These rules are part of a charging policy, which may optionally be determined by the content provider.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of commonly owned Ser. No. 10/431,437filed on May 8, 2003 U.S. Pat. No. 7,330,717 B2, issued Feb. 12, 2008,entitled RULE-BASED SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING THE PROVISIONING OFUSER APPLICATIONS ON LIMITED-RESOURCE AND/OR WIRELESS DEVICES, whichpatent is a continuation-in-part of commonly owned pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/240,409, filed Oct. 1, 2002, entitled SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR CHARGING FOR DIRECTED PROVISIONING OF USER APPLICATIONS ONLIMITED RESOURCE DEVICES, which is a 371 of International ApplicationNo. PCT/IL02/00139, filed Feb. 21, 2002, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FORCHARGING FOR DIRECTED PROVISIONING OF USER APPLICATIONS ONLIMITED-RESOURCE DEVICES, which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/270,638, filed Feb. 23, 2001, and claims the benefitof U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/280,849, filed Apr. 3, 2001, andis a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/987,514, filed Nov. 15, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,283,811 entitledSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AGGREGATION OF USER APPLICATIONS FORLIMITED-RESOURCE DEVICES, which application claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/270,638, filed Feb. 23, 2001; all suchprior applications are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and a method for directedprovisioning of user applications and other content items tolimited-resource and/or wireless devices, and in particular, to such asystem and method in which business logic for managing and charging forsuch applications is flexibly customized according to a plurality ofrules. Examples of suitable devices include, but are not limited to,cellular telephones and handheld computers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Cellular telephones have recently become increasingly popular for mobilevoice communication, as well as for the exchange of text messages andother types of data. For voice communication, cellular telephone systemsprovide similar services as the fixed, wire-based telephony system, orPSTN (public switched telephony network), except that cellular telephonesystems are based upon signal transmission through radio frequencysignals rather than wires. Hence, cellular telephones are also termed“wireless telephones”, and communication over such telephones is termed“wireless communication”.

One advantage of cellular telephones is that cellular telephones permitmobile communication, such that subscribers are able to communicatewhile traveling, or otherwise when subscribers are not at a fixedphysical location. In addition, cellular telephones permit subscribersto be contacted regardless of the location of the subscribers. Theseadvantages of mobile communication are also useful for the exchange ofdata, such as for text messages and even Web pages, for example.Cellular telephones are able to receive text messages through messageexchange protocols such as SMS (short message service), for example,which permit one-to-one communication between cellular telephonesthrough text messages. In addition, protocols such as the WAP (wirelessapplication protocol) and MMS (multimedia messaging system) enablecellular telephones, which are suitably enabled to receive Web pages andmultimedia messages. Thus, cellular telephones potentially provide afull communication solution for all of the different types of electroniccommunication for a subscriber.

However, cellular telephones have a number of disadvantages over othertypes of computational devices which are used to exchange data, such asdesktop computers, for example. Cellular telephones have limitedresources, and as such can be considered to be limited resource devices.Cellular telephones are limited by at least one of available memory,storage space, size of the display screen, and/or computational power,as represented by the ability to perform various data processing tasks.These limitations are imposed by the requirements of portability,convenient and simple operation, battery lifetime, weight and size. Inaddition, the type of limitations and the hardware specifications ofeach cellular telephone, or other related handheld device, also differbetween, cellular telephone service providers and even manufacturers.Thus, designing a single type of application which is suitable for allcellular telephones, for example, is clearly very difficult.

In addition, the heterogeneity of this computational environment extendsto the types of communication protocols according to which thesedifferent cellular telephones communicate for data transmission. Asdescribed above, three of these protocols include SMS, forcharacter-based messages only, MMS, for multimedia messages and WAP, formore browsing Web-based content which may also include graphics. Otherprotocols include “I-mode”, the packet-based cellular telephone datatransmission protocol of the Japanese company, NTT DoCoMo (Japan).

Unlike the static content which is delivered through WAP or I-mode, theJava 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) standard provides a platform for thedevelopment and implementation of dynamic content on limited-resourcemobile devices. J2ME is a special version of the popular Javaprogramming language (originally developed by Sun Microsystems), whichwas adapted to the limitations of consumer and embedded devices withlimited resources. J2ME is being defined as an industry standard bycompanies which manufacture limited resource devices, such as Motorola,Nokia and Palm. Another emerging standard is the Generic ContentDownload Over The Air Specification, which is defined by the Open MobileAlliance (OMA). This specification defines a simple protocol whichallows multiple media types, such as image, audio and video files to bedownloaded over the air to mobile devices.

JSR 124, which is defined by the Java Community Process (JCP), defines aJava 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) extension for client provisioning ofJ2ME applications and other content types. However, this JavaSpecification Request (JSR) defines only some of the external interfacesof such systems, while the business logic is left out of scope. Thebusiness logic of the provisioning system includes elements such asbilling models, payment methods, notification schemes, discounts, etc.Such elements typically vary from one service provider to another andthus are not addressed by existing standards.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The background art does not teach or suggest a system and a method forflexibly defining and customizing the business logic of a provisioningsystem that delivers user applications and other types of content tolimited resource and/or wireless devices.

The present invention overcomes these deficiencies of the background artby providing an extendible and customizable system that is driven by aplurality of rules through a rule engine. The rule engine is preferablyan event-driven system using discrete, sequential decisions to applyactions as a reaction to the occurrence of various events. The ruleengine preferably implements the Event Condition Action (ECA) model, inwhich each rule is triggered by a specific event type. The rulespecifies a condition that is evaluated against the properties of theevent and other properties that are referred by the context of theevent. If the condition is met, the action or actions are executed. Therule engine is preferably a rule-based system using discrete, sequentialdecisions to execute specific actions as a reaction to events that occurin the system.

The present invention may optionally and preferably be used as aplatform for the implementation of one or more business policies. Therule engine preferably allows the service provider to customize thebehavior of the provisioning system by defining business policies forbilling, payment, promotions, notifications, and so forth. Apart frombilling and/or payment, other examples of important polices include butare not limited to, policies for provisioning/payment flow;notifications and push of content; fraud detection; and discounts andbundled offers.

According to preferred embodiments, the present invention may optionallyand preferably be configured to charge based on different eventsaccording to the flow of events in provisioning. The initial request forprovisioning (downloading or other delivery of content) may optionallybe the discovery by the subscriber, possibly from browsing throughcategories, whereafter the subscriber optionally selects the desiredcontent item which constitutes a downloadable unit. Optionally, thesubscriber may view one or more menus or other displays of suchcategories in order to select the desired content. Alternatively oradditionally, the subscriber may optionally receive a notification aboutcontent, for example about the availability of new content. Such anotification is preferably implemented as a message that is sent to thesubscriber device, and through which the subscriber is preferably ableto request the item of content.

When the item is requested, the rule engine preferably reviews thedifferent options for the specific item, each of which representdifferent conditions for execution of one or more actions. Theseinclude, but are not limited to, possible payment methods, pricingschemes, one-time-use pricing, pricing for subscribers, and others. Therule engine most preferably performs actions at every stage of theprovisioning service and the delivery service.

According to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, rulesare associated with each of the above stages of content delivery. Theserules may optionally be divided into rules covering synchronousinteraction for synchronous reaction, as opposed to asynchronousreaction for asynchronous reaction. Synchronous reaction requires, forexample, that the payment system be linked to the content deliverysystem, such that the capability of the subscriber to pay for thecontent is preferably assured before the content is downloaded.Asynchronous reaction, on the other hand, permits the billing system andthe content delivery system to optionally operate without directinteraction, as the subscriber receives a monthly bill after the contentis delivered.

As used hereinafter, synchronous processing refers to a sequence ofoperations in which operations are executed in controlled timecoincidence with one another such that one event is made conditional tothe execution of another event. The term asynchronous hereinafterrelates to operations which are executed out of time coincidence, oftenin parallel where multiple events are executed, often in differentprogram threads without any conditionality between them.

Non-limiting examples of rules include synchronous events such as therule engine authorization action, occurring immediately after the eventof the subscriber ordering the content, to determine whether thesubscriber is prepaid and if so, acting to verifying if the subscriberhas enough credit to request the action. Another such policy mayoptionally be the choice of action to take when the balance is found tobe insufficient. The cellular operator may decide to inform the clientdirectly, offer an opportunity to pay more in advance or any otherpolicy configured in the most preferred policy editor.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, thecellular operator policies may optionally decide where in the chain ofevents to charge the subscriber. These choices include but are notlimited to, charging immediately once the subscriber has pressed thepurchase button, or else optionally after the subscriber hassuccessfully downloaded the content.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, thecellular operator policies may optionally include push of content. Anon-limiting example of a “push” technology is MMS (multimedia messageservice) which is a standardized mechanism for transmission of messageswith multimedia content. Unlike the transfer protocol for Java(HTTP—hypertext transfer protocol) MMS messages are routed through adedicated server, called the MMS relay, which pushes MMS messages todevices. Upon the event of the cellular subscriber selecting multimediacontent, the rule engine checks the condition of whether the contentshould be delivered through MMS as opposed to HTTP, and if so generatesa push event in the MMS server.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, thecellular operator policies may optionally include a set of rules forsending notifications. These may include events triggered on thepublishing of a new content item in the content catalog of theprovisioning system. This event is not generated as part of the seriesof events known as the provisioning flow. Instead, the event may be seenas forming part of the aggregation flow of content. Based on such anevent, the rule engine may optionally carry out certain conditions,including but not limited to, checking if a subscriber has downloaded aprevious version of a content item and has indicated the subscriber'sintention to receive these notifications, or to send a message that anew version is available and so forth.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, thecellular operator policies may optionally include a set of rules forpermitting discounts to subscriber or a content item. Such a set ofrules may take the non-limiting form of checking a predefined conditionsuch as if the subscriber has downloaded more than a certain number ofitems every month, giving the subscriber a discount on certain furtherdiscounts, lowering the price on a specific, preferred, piece ofcontent, lowering the price on the first predetermined number ofdownloads of a certain item and then normalizing the price, giving acertain discount for content in the initial stages of subscription andso forth.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, thecellular operator policies may optionally include a set of rulesdefining a bundled offer, in which the event of buying a certain pieceof content is considered as a condition when buying another piece ofcontent. Such a set of rules may take the non-limiting form of giving asecond item for half-price if a first item is purchased, mercantilecombinations of groups of items from the same producer—allowing thesubscriber to buy a predetermined number and get an additional itemwithout charge, provision of credit points for each purchase which maybe redeemed at a certain value and so forth. It must be noted here thatthe rule engine is stateless and discrete, inasmuch as records ofsubscriber purchases are kept in the subscriber's record, which isaccessible to the rule engine, but each purchase event is a unique anddiscrete event, evaluated separately. The engine thus optionallysearches for previous transactions by the subscriber which may have abearing on the rules, rendering each previous purchase into a form ofvoucher to be taken into consideration in the purchase of another item.

According to other preferred embodiments of the present invention, theremay also optionally be multiple conditions for each rule and alsomultiple actions, as a condition may optionally lead to an additionalaction, not limited to only a charge, but including the award of thediscount, push of content and others.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, thecellular operator policies may optionally include a set of rulesdefining the suspicion of fraud. Such a set of rules may take thenon-limiting form of detecting repeated downloads of the same content todifferent cellular devices by a single subscriber and so forth. Theactions in response to fraud may then include issuing an alert to ahuman operator, blocking the subscriber and so forth.

It will be noted that the same rule engine is used across the entiresystem to apply the various policies, thereby giving the serviceprovider more control over the actions of the system resultant from eachevent.

Policies can optionally and preferably be easily created and editedthrough the policy editor, which creates rule bases that are stored inXML files and are read by the rule engine.

Throughout this document, the term “plugging” is used to describe theprocess by which an existing set of behaviors is extended by addingfunctionality to the rule engine of the present invention, thereby“plugging” new building blocks, such as functions (used in the contextof the condition) and actions into the existing structure.

According to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, thereis provided an integrated platform enabling a provider to charge fordirected provisioning and usage of downloadable content on limitedresource or wireless communication devices, as well as the handling ofall aspects of aggregation and management of such downloadable content.The integrated platform preferably features a charging mechanism forperforming billing actions and interaction with other components of theintegrated platform in order to be able to determine the price forparticular triggering events, such as downloading a unit of content,and/or events which are actually triggered by the application itself.The price is preferably determined according to one of a plurality ofrules, as applied by a rules engine of the business logic system. Theserules are part of a charging policy, which is typically determined bythe service provider and possibly parameterized by the content provider.In addition, content providers can submit their own application-specificbusiness policies which may or may not be associated with billing.

According to preferred embodiments the present invention, the engine mayoptionally include at least one, but preferably two internal modes ofoperation. Each such internal mode may optionally and preferably beassociated with a separate instance of the rule engine. Each separateinstance of the rule engine may optionally have its own set of rulesstored in an optionally separate rule base. The main difference betweenthe two modes of operation is the way in which the rule engine processesevents either synchronously or asynchronously depending on their source,nature and requirements.

In an optional asynchronous environment, the rule engine acts as alistener, which waits for incoming messages which the messaging systemplaces in a dedicated queue after receipt of the event. These messagequeues and listeners manage the interactions between two separateprocesses, and the rule engine process is only aware of the event queueby name without interaction with its activities where the message itselfrepresents an event in the system. Optionally multiple engines may workon the same asynchronous queue to increase throughput and achieve highavailability. Instances of the engine may also optionally be ondifferent physical machines according to scalability and optimizationrequirements.

In an optional synchronous environment, the rule engine must be withinthe same process as the process which generates events. The rule enginethread may be included in a number of possible event generating modules,including but not limited to the delivery module, the aggregation moduleand so forth, and is always a local process in these modules—invoking amethod, applying a rule and returning an answer within the thread.

Preferably, rule-model differentiation and load balancing allow theengine and its capacity to connect to the billing system to be highlyscalable in order to be able to meet high levels of demand.

Hereinafter, the term “limited-resource device” refers to acomputational device in which computational resources such as memory,storage space, network bandwidth and/or data processing capabilities arelimited, particularly in comparison to desktop computers such as PCs(personal computers), for example.

Hereinafter, the term “network” refers to a connection between any twoor more computational devices which permits the transmission of data.

Hereinafter, the term “computational device” includes, but is notlimited to, personal computers (PC) having an operating system such asDOS, Windows™, OS/2™ or Linux; Macintosh™ computers; graphicalworkstations such as the computers of Sun Microsystems™ and SiliconGraphics™, and other computers having some version of the UNIX operatingsystem such as AIX™ or SOLARIS™ of Sun Microsystems™; or any other knownand available operating system, or any device, including but not limitedto: laptops, hand-held computers (based on operating systems such asSymbian and Pocket PC), PDA (personal digital assistant) devices (e.g.Palm Pilot), cellular telephones, two-way pagers, any type of WAP(wireless application protocol) enabled device, wearable computers ofany sort, and any device which can be connected to a network aspreviously defined and which has an operating system. Hereinafter, theterm “Windows™” includes any version of this operating system byMicrosoft Corp. (USA).

Hereinafter, the term “cellular communication device” refers to any typeof wireless handset or device, including but not limited to cellulartelephones or other types of computational device as defined above,which is capable of voice and/or data transfer through a radio frequencysignal using any protocol for communication of data including amongstothers TCP/IP or WAP as bearer technology for the transferal of contentfor example in the form of SMS, MMS, EMS, Java Applications and soforth, optionally through a connection to the PSTN (public switchedtelephone network).

For the present invention, a software application could be written insubstantially any suitable programming language, which could easily beselected by one of ordinary skill in the art. The programming languagechosen should be compatible with the computational device according towhich the software application is executed. Examples of suitableprogramming languages include, but are not limited to, C, C++ and Java.

In addition, the present invention could be implemented as software,firmware or hardware, or as a combination thereof. For any of theseimplementations, the functions performed by the method could bedescribed as a plurality of instructions performed by a data processor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is herein described, by way of example only, withreference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary system according tothe present invention;

FIG. 2A shows a schematic block diagram of an exemplary rule engine andcontent delivery system according to the present invention, while FIG.2B shows a schematic block diagram of an exemplary billing systemaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of the functionality of an exemplarybut preferred rule engine according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the flow of control in a billing modelaccording to the preferred embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic depiction of logical steps to determining price bythe rule engine;

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of exemplary scalable hardwareconfigurations according to the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of process control in a scaled, post-paidasynchronous billing model according to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is of a system and a method for controlling thebusiness logic involved in providing downloadable content such as userapplications for example, to limited resource or wireless devices.According to the present invention, an integrated platform which handlesall aspects of business logic, aggregation and management of suchdownloadable content is provided. The integrated platform features arule engine which governs various policies in the system, such aspayment flow, pricing, promotions, notifications, discounts and frauddetection. Each policy is composed of one or more rules in an ECA(event-condition-action) format. That is, each rule is specified by atriggering Event, a Condition that is checked against the context of theevent, and an Action that is executed if the condition is met.

Optionally, a charging policy may be embodied in the form of an“application level charging model”. An application-level charging modelprovides the means for implementing different business models fordifferent applications. That is, each application may have its ownbusiness logic model, as specified by its provider. This flexibility isachieved by collecting information about the activities of theapplication through runtime rules and applying dynamic charging models.

Different business logic policies may require synchronous orasynchronous rule handling in order to optimize response time,performance and scalability. According to the preferred embodiments ofthe present invention, the rule engine optionally and preferably takesno direct cognizance of previous events, and uses only sequentialprocessing of discrete single events to determine validity. As usedherein, synchronous processing refers to a sequence of operations inwhich operations are executed in controlled time coincidence with oneanother, and asynchronous operations are sequences of operations whichare executed out of time coincidence. Synchronous operations arecritical for example, in the charging of pre-paid subscribers wherethere is no way to correct errors post facto, and strict transactionprotocols must be applied, whereas with subscribers that are billedafter the fact, such strict protocols and controls would needlessly slowprocessing

Rule processing may optionally include support for discounts, specialoffers, bundled offers, acknowledgement of failures and refunds, and soforth. The rule based engine may optionally access statistics regardingusage trends and demographics in a separate statistical database, wheredatabase is defined hereinafter as any information set organized forflexible searching and utilization.

A non-limiting example of an extended rule could optionally be to checkif a specific application has been downloaded by a subscriber before.This operation queries a database containing the personal inventory ofthe subscriber and returns a Boolean result, thereby allowing the ruleengine to effectively refer to previous events. When referring toprevious events, the application of an extended rule optionally returnsa value that may optionally be used inside a condition of a rule.

Another non-limiting example of an extension to the business logic isthe capacity to define events sent to external systems (e.g., forreporting and monitoring) as a result of logic processing within thepresent invention. One non-limiting example of such an extension is theexecution of Java code as a result of activating a rule, which couldoptionally send an alert to an external system. This method of expansionis another example of the previously described process of “plugging.”

In addition the rule based engine may optionally process transactionsusing fuzzy logic to detect fraud, where fuzzy logic is definedhereinafter as any rule-based system which yields more than two truthvalues using the logic of probability. Such a system uses behaviorpattern recognition to supply fraud candidates based on trends,probability and specific instances.

According to other preferred embodiments of the present invention,payment methods may optionally and preferably include at least a prepaidmodel and a postpaid model. The prepaid model is used when thesubscriber has paid in advance for a limited amount of credit orservices, such as a limited number of applications for example. Thepre-paid model requires authorization for content delivery to bereceived before the content is actually delivered.

The postpaid model is useful when the subscriber is to be billed orotherwise charged after the application or other content has beendelivered, for example, for subscribers who receive a monthly bill forcontent delivery. This model disassociates billing or charging forcontent delivery from the delivery process itself, such that receipt ofthe authorization for content delivery is preferably not required beforedelivery is at least initiated.

According to another embodiment new and customized models are preferablyadded through a built in policy editor which may optionally extendexisting rules, or optionally create entirely new rules. These modelsare preferably stored as XML files which are accessible to the ruleengine at runtime.

As used herein, the term “dynamic content” refers to a unit of contentand/or to a set of instructions for execution by the limited resource orwireless (user) device, possibly interacting with a server sideapplication across the network. The content may optionally include anytype of media, including but not limited to, any one of audio data,video data, graphic images and text, any type of application whichincludes any type of media (such as any one or more of audio data, videodata, graphic images and text) or a combination thereof. Preferably, thedynamic content includes such a set of instructions for execution by thedevice, which optionally and more preferably are written in aninterpreted language such as Java, for example. However, the dynamiccontent optionally and most preferably also features one or morecomponents of a user interface, for example in order to select aparticular set of instructions and/or type of content.

The principles and operation of the present invention may be betterunderstood with reference to the drawings and the accompanyingdescription. It should be noted that although the following descriptioncenters around the subscriber device being a wireless, limited resourcedevice, this is for the purposes of description only and is not intendedto be limiting in any way.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of asystem according to the present invention for delivery of dynamiccontent creation for, and delivery to limited resource and/or wirelessdevice, collectively termed a subscriber device, including but notlimited to a rule engine 128 which enables the implementation of variousrules, including but not limited to aggregation policy, subscriberbilling, advertising, content pushing and so forth. The presentinvention is described with regard to cellular communication devices asthe subscriber devices, it being understood that this is for thepurposes of illustration only and is not intended to be limiting in anyway.

As shown, a system 10 features a cellular communication device 12, whichpreferably features a discovery application such as a microbrowser 38for discovering various types of content. System 10 also preferablyfeatures a download client 40 for downloading and installingapplications, and/or for handling any type of content, whetherapplications or other types of content, which as previously described,may be collectively termed “dynamic content”. It should be noted thatalthough the system of FIG. 1 is described with regard to Java as theapplication execution language, this is for the purposes of descriptiononly and is without any intention of being limiting in any way. Thepresent invention could also, additionally or alternatively, beoperative with other types of execution languages, as could easily bedetermined by one of ordinary skill in the art, such that these othertypes of execution languages are also considered to be within the scopeof the present invention.

Cellular communication device 12 is operated by a subscriber (notshown), who subscribes to a cellular carrier 14. Cellular carrier 14(also known as the operator) typically provides a number of differentservices through cellular communication device 12, including, but notlimited to, voice communication and/or data transmission. Cellularcarrier 14 may also include other types of functions, provided through avariety of different hardware and/or software components, as is wellknown in the art.

For the purposes of the present invention, cellular carrier 14 alsomanages a content provisioning platform 16 according to the presentinvention. As described in greater detail below, provisioning platform16 features a number of different components, for the creation ofdynamic content which is adaptable to a variety of devices such ascellular communication device 12; for the delivery of such dynamiccontent to cellular communication device 12 according to a flexible setof rules embodied in rule engine 128, and optionally other devices,preferably only as required or “on-demand”; and for optionally receivingsuch dynamic content from third party providers. System 10 preferablycontains a delivery module 42 for actually delivering each item or unitof dynamic content (application) to cellular communication device 12,through different protocols.

With regard to the last feature, provisioning platform 16 is preferablyin communication with content providers 18, of which only one is shownfor the purposes of clarity and without any intention of being limiting.Content provider 18 preferably actually submits each such dynamiccontent to a content repository 20 of provisioning platform 16, which ismanaged by cellular carrier 14, acting as a service provider 22. Eachunit of dynamic content, more preferably with any required and/orpreferred modifications or specific implementations, may then betransmitted to cellular communication device 12 and/or another limitedresource or wireless device (not shown). Optionally and most preferably,the subscriber subscribes to any particular dynamic content throughcellular carrier 14, in order to receive such dynamic content throughcellular communication device 12.

The act of subscription to any service or bundle of services is an eventwhich is preferably processed by rule engine 128. Rules regardingsubscriptions may include eligibility, age restriction, regionrestriction and others, all of which constitutes conditions to beverified by rule engine 128 before the action of subscription ispermitted.

According to preferred embodiments of the present invention, theprocedure for providing such a dynamic content through system 10 ispreferably performed as follows. First, the dynamic content itself ispreferably developed, for example by a third party such as contentprovider 18. More preferably, the dynamic content is created through anAPI (application programming interface) and set of tools according tothe present invention, as described in greater detail below.

Next, content provider 18 preferably submits a new unit of dynamiccontent to service provider 22, which manages a provisioning service forsuch dynamic content. This procedure for submitting a new unit ofdynamic content is preferably performed according to a standardizedsubmission protocol. Next, service provider 22 preferably uses a set oftools according to the present invention in order to inspect and certifythe submitted units of dynamic content. Optionally and most preferably,the dynamic content is also submitted with any other meta-informationwhich may be required by another component of system 10. Thisinformation can include the form of the business logic rules which applyto rule engine and are preferably sent as XML instructions which arestored in rule base 164. These rules may include a plurality ofoperations, including but not limited to the pricing scheme, deliveryinformation, associated promotions, push schedule, sampling period andso forth.

Rule engine 128 then accesses the rule-set known as its contentaggregation policy Here the event of an upload attempt may invoke anumber of conditions, including but not limited to, suppliereligibility, content appropriateness, need to push content immediatelyand so forth, each of which leads to an appropriate action by ruleengine 128, and each of which is preferably customized by each cellularprovider 14.

If the dynamic content is found to be suitable, service provider 22 thenpreferably approves and publishes the new dynamic content. Publicationenables the new dynamic content to be available to user devices such ascellular communication device 12 for example. Publication is preferablyperformed by placing the dynamic content in content repository 20, fordelivery to cellular communication device 12. Content repository 20 thenoptionally and more preferably organizes the dynamic content into adynamic content directory, which contains information about theavailable categories and units of dynamic content. Optionally, thedistribution of the dynamic content may also include features forsupporting financial remuneration, for example through subscriptions, asdescribed in greater detail below.

With such a directory, units of dynamic content are optionally andpreferably organized into a hierarchical structure of service packages,and/or categories and sub-categories, and are also more preferablyassociated with attributes which affect the business logic rules whichmay be inflicted upon a request by rule engine 128. Different filtersand/or tools according to the present invention are optionally andpreferably provided as rules in rule base 164 in order to customize thedynamic content according to the requirements and/or requests of thesubscribers and to create implementation rules in rule engine 128 whichenable speedy and flexible provision.

Optionally and preferably, one of the rules in rule base 164 determineswhether the subscriber is eligible to receive a particular unit ofdynamic content in order for rule engine 128 to allow the subscriber toreceive such dynamic content through cellular communication device 12.For example, the subscriber could optionally have some type ofsubscription, to a particular unit of dynamic content but morepreferably to a service package, or even to any such dynamic contentavailable through cellular carrier 14, as well as variations thereof, orrule engine 128 may only verify the age of a subscriber in the eventthat a download request is received for a non-payable item of contenthaving an age restriction, such as a minimum age requirement forexample. Subscription is optionally and preferably performed throughcellular carrier 14 and stored in subscription preferences repository36, while the associations between subscriptions and the behavior ofprovisioning system 10 is determined by rules in rule base 164.

Each rule in rule base 164 is preferably composed of a triplet ofevents, conditions and actions (ECA). A simple example for a chargingrule would be “every download of a basic application costs $1”. Here,the trigger for applying the rule is an event of application download,the condition being that application's class is basic, and the outcomebeing an action for charging the price of $1. Another rule in the samepolicy could be “every download of a premium application costs $3”.Here, the trigger for applying the rule is again an event of applicationdownload, the condition being that the application's class is premium,while the outcome is an action for charging the price of $3.

Examples of different types of events include but are not limited to,application-specific events which according to the preferred embodimentsof the present invention are defined as events that are preferablygenerated by applications executed on the device, such as a game beingplayed for example; or as events that are optionally and preferablygenerated in any computational device communicating with the device overa network as a consequence of the execution of an application, such as astock trading server, for example, execution which causes a stocktransaction to be executed.

Other events may also be system events which according to the preferredembodiments of the present invention are defined as events that arepreferably and optionally generated by one or more components of thesystem. These events may optionally include but are not limited to,events optionally and preferably generated by the infrastructure such asan application download for example; or events that are preferably andoptionally sent from the client, which may for example be generated byan application wrapper (a code that is automatically attached to theapplication and controls its execution) on the device, or alternativelygenerated by the dynamic content manager on the device. Each event isoptionally and preferably associated with one or more parameters, forexample, subscriber ID (identifier) and application ID. These parameterscan optionally and more preferably be used in order to retrieveadditional information about the context of the event.

A specific condition may optionally be added to each rule in the policy,which is based upon some predefined parameters so that for example theprice of a specific event is flexible and may have multiple optionsgiven different conditions. For example, different prices may be chargedat different times of the day. The condition is more preferablyexpressed as a logical expression which yields a true/false value.Examples of parameters for the condition include, but are not limitedto, subscriber information, such as group, age, gender and other typesof demographic information; content data, such as the name of thecontent item, the name of the content provider, size of the content,flavor, or type of limited resource or wireless device, and so forth;delivery conditions, such as delivery time, size, and so forth; andcontent-specific information. The subscriber and content data mayoptionally be retrieved from specific repositories, such as a contentrepository 20 and/or a subscriber preferences repository 36.

Dynamic parameters may also optionally be used in conditions. Theseparameters are preferably retrieved from the database or external systemthrough pluggable operations. For example, an operation may be used toquery the transaction database and retrieve the number of downloads thatwere performed by the subscriber in the last month. An example of anoperation that uses an external server for such a query is retrievingthe location of the subscriber.

When a rule is activated and its condition is met, the action isperformed as defined in the rule. An example of an action is Chargewhich according to preferred embodiments of the present invention isdefined as a request from an external system to charge the subscriber afee for consuming a content item or bundle. In the case of Charge thesubscriber, or user, of cellular communication device 12 is optionallyand more preferably charged according to one of the following pricespecifications: a general price for the dynamic content, as set in thesubmission process; a price that is specified according to policyparameters; a price that is specified by the event which is sent by theapplication or a price that is determined by an external rating system.Other examples of actions are Send Notification, Grant Discount, GiveCredit Points, Block Subscriber, Push Content and Restart Process (forsystem management)

According to preferred embodiments of the present invention, thebusiness logic rule regarding application-specific charging is performedas follows. Each billing event of this type is triggered by theapplication or item of content itself and is determined in advance bythe content provider, as previously described. For example, if thecontent provider has developed a new game, then optionally thesubscriber could be charged each time another stage in the game iscompleted. The charging policy, or rule(s), would then be based uponevents occurring within the application.

Optionally and most preferably, a policy editor (not shown) is used todefine flexible business policies by the service provider. The samepolicy editor can be used to define application-specific policies by thedeveloper and/or content provider, based on application custom events.The application developer and/or content provider can optionally andmore preferably define the structure of the custom events, definecharging rules based on these events, and create a business policy rulebase. The policy file is optionally and preferably uploaded to theserver and accessed by the content management mechanism, and optionallyand more preferably executed by rule engine 128 when the applicationevent is received. Business policies are described in greater detailwith regard to FIG. 2A.

Charging for these transactions is then optionally and preferablyperformed through a charging module 23, which is optionally and morepreferably located at provisioning platform 16 and subject to rulesembodied in rule engine 128. Charging module 23 determines a price forconsuming certain types of dynamic content by cellular communicationdevice 12, optionally and more preferably according to the plurality ofrules in base 164. In addition, subscriptions are preferably supportedby subscriber preferences repository 36, which is part of provisioningplatform 16. This repository of subscriber information containsinformation about different subscribers, their association with groups,eligibility to access various services, history of transactions, and anypersonal preferences. Rule engine 128 may optionally use subscriberpreferences repository 36 as input to rules. For example, a rule forsending notifications can be triggered when a new application ispublished and send notifications to subscribers that have downloaded aprevious version of the same application or have expressed theirinterest in this type of application. Here, subscriber preferencesrepository 36 is used as the basis for detecting previous downloads andreading the preferences of the subscriber, which are needed in order toexecute the rule.

If download client 40 determines that the corresponding dynamic contentshould be downloaded by cellular communication device 12, thenpreferably download client 40 sends a request for the dynamic contentitself to delivery module 42. Delivery module 42 then asks rule engine128 for permission to download. Rule engine 128 then optionally andpreferably assesses the business logic required to carry out therequest.

Rule engine 128 may optionally determine a large and customizable arrayof alternatives. If, for non-limiting example, the content ispromotional and free of charge, rule engine 128 preferably immediatelyreturns an approval for the download. According to the preferredembodiments of the present invention, the rules themselves arecustomizable in accordance with the needs of cellular carrier 14.Therefore, the rules are optionally and preferably constructed accordingto any suitable logic structure, including but not limited to anyexpressible piece of logic which may be defined under the paradigm ofevent-condition-action, where actions differ depending on the outcome ofthe condition verification. Non-limiting examples of such conditionsinclude the type of device, subscriber history, number of precedingdownloads. The condition may optionally take any parameter of the eventand use that as a key to retrieve information from the database, anon-limiting example of which is to check if a subscriber has alreadypurchased other items in a bundled offer by referencing the subscriberrecord in subscriber preferences repository 36, preferably by using thesubscriber identification number in the event as a key to subscriberpreferences repository 36.

All three logical steps of event, condition and action are optionallyextensible within the present invention, optionally and more preferablyby creating a new API (application programming interface) plug to extendrule engine 128 to accept new events, or new functions in the conditionor new actions commensurate with the new rule. One non-limiting exampleof such a condition added to a rule by a service provider that is basedon the location of the provider. Conditions themselves may optionally beextended through one or more operations, which are functions performedor executed by the rule engine that return a value, which is then usedfor evaluating the condition. Operations differ from actions in that thelatter are executed after an entire rule has been evaluated, while theformer are performed or executed as part of a condition within a rule.

Rule engine 128 also is optionally and preferably involved in themanagement and control of the process of charging, and includes twomodifiable modes of operation—prepaid synchronous and post-paidasynchronous. If the subscriber is using a prepaid payment method,naturally no actions can be taken before the debit is complete untilpayment is confirmed—this timed behavior is thus called synchronousbehavior. The logic flow of the billing engine is dealt with in moredetail in FIG. 3.

When delivery is approved by rule engine 128, optionally and preferablyafter ensuring payment, adapted dynamic content is then preferablydynamically generated and sent by delivery module 42 to cellularcommunication device 12. FIG. 2A shows a schematic block diagram of anexemplary system 121 according to the present invention for themanagement of a subset of rules which are the billing models of thesystem with additional details concerning a preferred implementation forsuch management according to the present invention.

As shown, a system 121 features cellular communication device 12,operated by a subscriber (not shown), who subscribes to cellular carrier14, as previously described.

According to preferred implementations of the present invention,provisioning platform 16 communicates with the various components ofsystem 121 through a messaging system 140 which is optionally andpreferably responsible for distributing the events that are published bythe various sources within system 121. Messaging system 140 mayoptionally be synchronous or asynchronous.

As shown, cellular communication device 12 is capable of executingand/or otherwise accessing and/or displaying and/or consuming one ormore units of dynamic content 122 (application(s)). A client side policy124 is optionally and preferably attached to each unit of dynamiccontent 122 and most preferably is executed and/or otherwise accessedlocally by cellular communication device 12. Optionally and preferably,client side policy 124 is defined as a set of compiled rules that areoptionally and preferably attached to an application and/or other typeof content, shown herein as dynamic content 122, before the applicationis delivered to a client device, shown herein as cellular communicationdevice 12. This policy preferably enforces the license agreement bywhich the application (dynamic content 122) was provided. For example,the application could optionally be provided under a license for alimited period of usage or a limited number of uses. Client side policy124 optionally and preferably completes or otherwise complements theserver side policy, by allowing some of the actions to be performedoffline. Client-side policy 124 optionally and preferably enablesapplications to be executed without requiring an event to be sent to theserver (provisioning platform 16). Optionally but not exclusively,client side policies 124 can be used in order to limit the number oftimes an application is allowed to run, to limit the period in which anapplication is valid or to allowing the license to be renewed online.

Optionally and preferably client side policies 124 are implementedthrough additional software components known as “wrappers” that areoptionally and preferably generated automatically by the system, andoptionally and more preferably provisioning platform 16, with or withoutthe involvement of the developer or content provider. The wrapperoptionally and preferably controls the execution of the application bychecking the license terms each time the application is started. If thelicense is valid, the application is invoked, otherwise, the subscriberis notified and offered to renew the license. Without renewing thelicense, the subscriber (or more specifically, cellular communicationdevice 12) is preferably not able to run the application.

Provisioning platform 16 is preferably able to serve one or more unitsof dynamic content to cellular communication device 12. A plurality ofsuch units of dynamic content 122 may optionally be present on, andoperated by, cellular communication device 12 (not shown).

Provisioning platform 16 preferably contains rule engine 128 whichreceives events and applies one or both of business policies 123, 130.Rule engine 128 performs any calculations which are required toauthorize downloading of content, including the sums required forbilling events, or events within the overall system of the presentinvention which actually trigger billing. These events are preferablyreceived by cellular communication device 12, which communicates withthe remaining modules of provisioning platform 16.

Rule engine 128 preferably analyzes incoming events, such as a requestfor particular content from a particular subscriber through a limitedresource or wireless device. Rule engine 128 then determines whichrule(s), of a plurality of such rules that are specified in businesspolicy, should apply to the incoming event, calculates the conditionsthat are associated with these rules and operates the relevant actions.Actions handler 108 is responsible for actually executing the actionfrom rule engine 128, both by interacting with other modules of thebilling system, such as charging module 23 and by interacting with othermodules of the provisioning platform.

According to preferred embodiments of the present invention,provisioning platform 16 optionally and preferably also features anarchive 118 for storing the data which influenced the execution ofparticular policies, as well as the details of these actions. Forexample, archive 118 preferably stores information in order to be ableto recreate each Call Detail Record (CDR), as well as those parametersand values which were used by rule engine 128 in order to determine aparticular charge for a particular event. Archive 118 can optionally beused to generate reports for submission to the dynamic contentdevelopers and/or content providers, as well as for generating billingreports for the subscribers, as described in greater detail below.

In addition, archive 118 can also optionally be consulted for thehistory and details of billing actions in cases of suspected fraud. Ruleengine 128 is optionally enabled to use fuzzy logic to detect fraud butis more preferably able to function in the event-condition-action mannerdescribed above. The fraud detection policy may optionally andpreferably be modified and “plugged” in the identical manner as othertypes of business logic by each service provider (not shown), and shownas business policies 123, 130. Among the various functions, and withoutintention to limit other options, the fraud engine may optionally haveas an action to alert a human controller to evaluate an event, oroptionally block a subscriber for example.

According to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, a humanrepresentative of cellular carrier 14 is able to initiate events withinthe system from a management console 200. These initiated actionsinclude, but are not limited to notification, push of content and soforth. In the event that it is decided to push a certain piece ofcontent to a given cellular device 12, an event is preferably sent frommanagement console 200 to rule engine 128 for approval according to therules in rule base 164, including but not limited to which cellulardevice 12 are able to accept the content, which subscribers aresubscribed to such content from subscription preferences repository 36,or which subscribers are eligible for a certain promotional discountfrom rule base 164 and so forth.

For each cellular communication device 12 that is found to be eligible,actions handler 108 preferably sends a content push request to deliverymodule 42 which then downloads the content to device 12. In the eventthat billing is required for the pushed content, actions handler 108initiates billing activity in charging module 23 as outlined above.

Optionally and preferably, the manager may wish to carry out activitieson management console 200 at a delayed timepoint that is later than thetime of their input. Towards this end, a system timer 202 is preferablyable to dispatch an event initiated by the manager at a delayedscheduled time.

In addition to the above functionality, rule engine 128 is optionallyand preferably able to modify pricing according to discounts and bundledoffers offered by the cellular carrier 14 by storing them as rules inrule base 164.

Turning to FIG. 2B, according to optional but preferred embodiments ofthe present invention, charging module 23 features a mediation block 110for receiving charge commands from actions handler 108 (not shown; seeFIG. 2A). Mediation block 110 then preferably submits a charge messageto the outside billing system in the protocol of that billing system.For example, mediation block 110 could optionally communicate with thebilling system of the cellular carrier according to the format orlanguage of that particular billing system.

Optionally, mediation block 110 features a CDR builder 112 for receivingthe charge command and for producing the CDR (call/charge data record)according to a format which is defined by the carrier (or other outsidebilling entity). The CDR is then transmitted to the external billingsystem (not shown) by a CDR transmitter 116. The data for the CDR mayoptionally be stored at charging module 23 and/or another module of thesystem as static data, or alternatively may be dynamic data whichdepends on the particular charging event, as received from actionshandler 108 enacting the result of rule engine 128. Examples of staticdata include, but are not limited to, subscriber identification andprofile information; dynamic content attributes, such as name, size andso forth; and content provider information. Examples of dynamic datainclude, but are not limited to, timing data (concerning the time periodat which the triggering event occurred); the type of triggering event,such as download or application-specific events; and the amount to becharged or the rate of charging.

Auxiliary data may also optionally be attached to the CDR for validationpurposes by the external billing system. Examples of auxiliary datainclude, but are not limited to, a unique identifier for the CDR;sequence information, such as a sequential number for each CDR, and soforth; the time of creation for the CDR; and metadata which defines therecord type and/or record specific fields.

According to preferred embodiments of the present invention, the system(as shown with regard to FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B) is optionally andpreferably capable of implementing business policies according tobusiness models. For example, optionally and preferably the overallsubset of the business policies by which a subscriber is charged forconsuming a downloadable unit of dynamic content (i.e. an applicationthat is provisioned to a wireless communication device) is referred toas a “dynamic content level business model”. A dynamic content-levelbusiness model is the preferred method to enable the implementation ofdifferent business models for different units of dynamic content. Thatis, each unit of dynamic content optionally and preferably has anassociated business model, preferably as specified by the provider ofthat unit of dynamic content. This flexibility is optionally and morepreferably achieved by collecting information about the activities ofthe system and units of dynamic content and applying dynamic businessmodels.

According to optional and preferred embodiments of the presentinvention, a business policy is optionally and preferably composed of aserver side policy, optionally with a client side policy, and/ordownload policy which defines the conditions which must be met beforeunits of dynamic content may be downloaded. Each of these policies isoptionally and preferably associated with one or more parametersoptionally and preferably provided with the unit of dynamic content.

According to optional but preferred embodiments of the presentinvention, business policies that may be considered includedownload-based billing, age and eligibility of the subscriber, where thesubscriber is charged on downloading the dynamic content; usage-basedbilling, where the subscriber is charged for the number of times thedynamic content is used, or for the period in which the content is used;subscription-based billing, where the subscriber is charged a periodicalfee for a limited or unlimited consumption of services andapplication-specific billing, where the subscriber is charged forperforming various actions within the application (the meaning of theseactions is may optionally be known only to, but at least is known by,the application). The above examples should be considered typical andillustrative and by no means exhaustive or exclusive.

One example of such a billing model is the “try and buy” model. Theclient-side policy states that free access is given a certain number oftimes according to the client side parameter. After this point, if thesubscriber wants to continue to use the application, a renewal isrequested from the server. The server, in response, charges a priceaccording to its server-side policy parameter, after which the wrapperenables the original application. Download policy may optionally be toallow a single download for the purposes of trying the particulardynamic content.

Further examples of one-time billing models include the “One time fee”model where there is no client-side policy and the server side policydetermines a single charge priced according to its policy parameter inresponse to download; the “limited usage” model where the client-sidepolicy states that access is given a certain number of times afterinstallation according to the client side parameter; the “time-limitedusage” model where the client-side policy states that access is givenfor a certain period of time after installation according to the clientside parameter, whereafter a billed renewal is requested from theserver; the “pay per usage” model where each time the application isused and/or otherwise accessed, the client-side policy preferablyrequests a renewal from the server, which in response charges a price;the “Pay per download” model; the “flat subscription” model and soforth.

An example of a particular application-specific billing model couldoccur when an application supplies stock quotes which in general cost 10cents per stock quote. Between 7:00 pm and 7:00 am, the stock quotes mayoptionally cost 5 cents. This is preferably implemented as a server-sidepolicy only, with the different prices as its parameters and theprovision of the stock quotes as its events.

FIG. 3 is a system diagram delineating exemplary but preferredfunctionality of an exemplary rule engine according to the currentinvention, as part of provisioning platform 16. As shown, deliverymodule 42 optionally sends an authorization request to rule engine 128.This request optionally and preferably takes the form of function callrequest 201 to an existing procedure already loaded into memory on anavailable computer, but may optionally create its own instance upon eachcalling. According to preferred embodiments of the present invention,request 201 is preferably transmitted to rule engine 128 throughmessaging system 140, which as previously described, preferablytransmits messages between all components of provisioning platform 16.

Rule engine 128 also optionally and preferably accesses variousrepositories in order to determine one or more conditions. Uponreceiving one or more events, rule engine 128 optionally and preferablyselects relevant rules. Each rule is preferably activated separately onevery discrete transaction request received, by evaluating appropriateconditions and more preferably executing an action if a condition ismet. Rule engine 128 optionally and preferably implements the variouspolicies of the cellular operator, optionally created in XML format andoptionally and preferably by using the policy editor (not shown).

These policies include but are not limited to an aggregation policywhere content submitted may be included, rejected or pushed according tothe status of the content and content provider 18 which is referenced asa key in a search of server side policies 130 on the event of an upload.

An optional and still more preferable result of an action is generationof a billing record (CDR) by actions handler 108 which then mostpreferably transmits billing records to external billing system 134 in aconfigured protocol, as defined by external billing system 134. For theexemplary embodiment shown herein, messaging system 140 also transmitsmessages from provisioning platform 16 to external components, such asexternal billing system 134.

Provisioning platform 16 is also optionally and preferably incommunication with one or more content providers 18. Although aplurality of such content providers 18 may optionally be incommunication with provisioning platform 16, only one such contentprovider 18 is shown for the purposes of illustration only and withoutany intention of being limiting. One or more content providers 18 mayoptionally run backend (i.e. server component) application 138.

According to optional and more preferred embodiments of the presentinvention the process of defining and applying business models involvescontent provider 18, service provider (not shown), which may optionallybe for example the owner of provisioning platform 16, and subscriber(also not shown). Optionally and more preferably, a service providerpre-defines business models that are optionally and preferably used bycontent providers 18. These business models can most preferably beeasily customized by specifying optional parameters optionally andpreferably for server-side policy 130 (typically but not exclusivelyprice) or optionally and preferably client-side policy 124 (typicallybut not exclusively number of allowed uses). Optionally and morepreferably, a service provider is responsible for reviewing andapproving application-specific business models and parameters forpre-defined business models that are submitted by content providers 18.

More preferably, when the dynamic content is submitted, content provider18 preferably selects an applicable business model and optionally andmore preferably provides parameters. Content provider 18 optionally andstill more preferably defines new business models by more preferably andoptionally composing new policies for one or both of mobile application(i.e. running on the device such as a cellular telephone for example)and backend application 138. Optionally and most preferably, policiesare submitted through files that are generated by a policy editor (notshown). For dynamic content-specific business models, this is the mostpreferred way in which content provider 18 can associate rules withevents that are generated from within the application (not shown).

A subscriber (end user) can optionally select from multiple businessmodels before downloading the dynamic content. Alternatively, thesubscriber may optionally be allowed only to select a particular dynamiccontent, but not the business model, which is then selected by system121. In any case, system 121 preferably performs a series of actions inorder to follow a particular business model. Once a specific businessmodel is selected, delivery module 42 preferably generates an event thatindicates the selected model and optionally the price that wascalculated by synchronous rule engine 128. This event is received by theasynchronous rule engine, which uses the information inside the event inorder to generate a CDR.

More preferably, system 121 determines whether a subscriber is allowedto download the dynamic content, according to download policy (notshown). Optionally and still more preferably, system 121 attaches clientside policy 124 to the application (dynamic content), most preferablywith one or more relevant parameters, such that client side policy 124is sent to cellular communication device 12, most preferably with theapplication.

According to preferred implementations of the present invention, abusiness model is preferably processed by system 121 in several stages.During the provisioning and execution of the application/dynamiccontent, one or more events are optionally and preferably generated.

A “dynamic content delivery/installation” event is optionally andpreferably generated by provisioning platform 16 when the dynamiccontent is preferably delivered to cellular communication device 12 (notshown; see FIGS. 1 and 2A) or optionally and more preferably installedon cellular communication device 12 (optionally and preferably reportedby cellular communication device 12 itself). This event, and thoseevents which are described in greater detail below, may be generalizedto any type of dynamic content but are described herein with regard toapplications for the purpose of discussion only, and without anyintention of being limiting.

An “application start” event is optionally and preferably generated bythe dynamic content on cellular communication device 12 (in thisexample, as an application) and optionally and more preferably handledlocally by client side policy 124, which may send this event to theserver.

Periodic events are optionally and preferably generated by system 121 atspecific defined time intervals (typically but not exclusively once aday, week, month, etc.) and are optionally and preferably are used fortriggering subscription charging. Examples of such subscription chargingare described above.

License renewal events are optionally and preferably generated byprovisioning server 16 to indicate that a subscriber has asked to renewa license for a dynamic content. Application-specific events areoptionally and preferably generated by the mobile application (on thesubscriber device; not shown) or optionally by backend application 138on the occurrence of various activities, preferably with regard toactions on, by or with the dynamic content.

As previously described, events are optionally and more preferablyreported to system 121 through HTTP. For server-side events, eventdistribution is optionally and preferably done through an internalmessaging mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the flow of control in a content deliverysession according to the preferred embodiments of the present invention.In stage 1 the limited resource or wireless device sends a downloadrequest. In stage 2, the rule engine checks the applicable businesspolicies and then in stage 3 calculates the prices. In stage 4, thedownload server returns a list of available billing models and theirprices to the subscriber device. In stage 5, the subscriber selects aspecific business model and confirms the price. A confirmation is sentto the download server. In stage 6, the rule engine checks the paymentmethod of the subscriber.

If the subscriber is found to be pre-paid, then in stage 7, the balanceof the subscriber is checked in the pre-paid system. This branch ofprocessing is by definition synchronous for pre-paid systems, and therule engine co-resides with the component that triggers the rule engine.The triggering component, the download server, invokes the rule enginewith an event and waits for the completion of the event processing whilethe rule engine applies the rules and returns a result.

If the subscriber is found to have insufficient balance, then in stage 8an error message is sent. In the event that sufficient funds areavailable, in stage 9 the subscriber is debited. In stage 10, thedownload server issues a content purchase event and then in stage 11 thedownload server delivers the content to the device. Once the download iscomplete, in stage 12, the download server issues a content downloadevent and in stage 13 device sends an install notification, confirmingthat the content has arrived. In stage 14, the download server issues aninstall event which in stage 15 is read from the message queue by theasynchronous rule engine. In stage 16, this is then billed when a CDR(Call Detail Record) is sent from the rule engine to the billing systemwhich affects the billing in stage 17.

For post-paid subscribers, billing may optionally be triggered by any ofthe plurality of events that are issued by the download server in stages10, 12 and 14 in an asynchronous manner.

FIG. 5 is a schematic depiction of logical stages to determining priceby the rule engine. These optional and preferable logical stages arecarried out in accordance with “event, condition and action” where eachstage is a condition that generates an action, this action optionallybeing either the invocation of the next rule, or the approval of thedownload with the appropriate price. Each stage references theappropriate repositories of information 305-308, and returns a Boolean,where yes is a charge instruction and no is depicted by the arrows whichlead to the next stage, which in its turn may deliver appropriatepermissions and pricing.

A non-limiting example of such a set of stages, which are preferredembodiments of the present invention, may have as stage 1 clienteligibility without any billing 301 which optionally references thetable of client entitlement only 305. Stage 2 optionally checks previoustransaction of purchasing the same content item, which may have beenerased 302 and optionally references previous purchases 307. Stage 3optionally processes special deals with cross-entitlements 303 (“bundledoffers) such as “buy 5, get one free” deals, optionally referencing bothentitlements 306 and previous purchases 307. In another embodiment ofrule-stages, the engine checks other billing methods where the clientmay be entitled to a certain number of downloads 304, but it must beverified how many previous downloads 308 were carried out, andfurthermore the engine ratifies any other possibility ensuing from theabove, combinations thereof or other unmentioned billing rules.

Also displayed in FIG. 5 is an optional and preferable database of usagestatistics 309 which is optionally updated by the rules according towhichever of them is invoked or which is rejected in order to facilitatesuch information as for example age breakdowns, demographics, downloadtimes and so forth.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of exemplary scalable hardwareand/or software configurations according to the present invention. Herethe capacity to instantiate different models in different machinesallows two levels of load balancing which are highly optimized.Initially requests from cellular device 12 are load balanced between anumber of download servers 42 by load balancer 404 optionally withoutanalyzing the needed rule-models or reading requests. Load balancer 404distributes requests from cellular device 12 to the various downloadservers 42 according to a variety of criteria, including but not limitedto which content is requested (allowing each download server 42 to holdonly certain content in its storage), which area the request is madefrom (distributing download servers geographically near relay stations),using round-robin policy, or randomly for example. Any combination ofcriteria may also optionally be used.

Download servers 42 then sends requests to messaging server cluster 401which distributes them further. Rule engines 402 may be structuredaccording to a number of different criteria in order to maximize theirspeed and efficiency. Examples of distribution criteria include, but arenot limited to the following possibilities.

According to an optional embodiment of the present invention, each ruleengine 402 may optionally hold a certain rule set. In such anembodiment, rule base 164 (shown in FIG. 1) may be distributed in anumber of subsets within each computer which also holds rule engine 402,thereby optimizing the communication between each rule engine 402 andits set of rules. In such a configuration, messaging server cluster 401manages virtual queues and distributes messages accordingly. Eachinstance of rule engine 402 is preferably configured to work on aspecific queue.

The number of download servers 42 and rule engines 402 may be increasedindefinitely, creating theoretically unlimited scalability and loadcontrol.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a generic event processing flow asperformed by the asynchronous rule engine according to the preferredembodiments of the present invention. An event is placed on messagequeue 150 by a front-end component, such as delivery module 42. Theevent is read from the message queue by event dispatcher 152, whichplaces the event on event queue 154. Event dispatcher 152 notifiesacknowledge manager 166 of the event.

The event is read from event queue 154 by event processor 156 whichreads the applicable rules based on the event type from rule base 164.Event processor 156 extracts the necessary information from database 162based on the applicable rule and creates the context of the event,whereafter event processor 156 calculates the conditions set by theapplicable rule and which actions need to be executed. Event processor156 then stores the event, its context and the actions that need to beexecuted as a result of the rule in database 162.

Event processor 156 notifies acknowledge manager 166 that the event hasbeen processed, after which acknowledge manager 166 acknowledges receiptof the event to messaging server 104, allowing the message to bereleased. Event processor 156 places the action on action queue 158 andaction handler 160 reads the action from the queue and executes theaction. Action handler 160 records the result of the action in database162 independently of the event processing pace of rule engine 128. Itwill be noted that in the asynchronous embodiment of the presentinvention, rule engine 128 resides in a separate process and thecomponent that issues the event, running in the context of deliverymodule 42 is unaware of its existence. Optionally several instances ofrule engine 128 may process events from the same queue 150 (not shown),thus allowing the system to be scalable.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations,modifications and other applications of the invention may be made.

1. A method for implementing a policy for provisioning a dynamic contentto a limited resource device (LRD) through an integrated platform, themethod comprising: receiving an event associated with a dynamic contentrequest from a LRD application; evaluating the event using sequentialprocessing according to one or more application-specific policy definingbusiness rules associated with said LRD application, said policybusiness rules being structured according to an ECA(event-condition-action) model, such that each rule is triggered by anevent, and wherein said rule engine evaluates a condition to determinewhether an action should be executed; and interacting with the LRDaccording to said evaluation.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thelimited resource device is a wireless communication device.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the limited resource device is a cellularcommunication device.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said at leastone rule includes an event, a condition and an action, said event atleast including said request, said condition being determined accordingto at least one characteristic of said request and said action beingdetermined according to at least one characteristic for delivering thedynamic content.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein said event is arequest to receive the dynamic content for downloading to the limitedresource device.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein said event isgenerated by a user application as operated by the limited resourcedevice, such that said request is received from the user application. 7.The method of claim 4, wherein said condition is determined according toat least one parameter selected from the group consisting of subscriberinformation regarding a user of the limited resource device, datarelated to the dynamic content, delivery conditions for delivering thedynamic content and information which is specific to the dynamiccontent.
 8. The method of claim 4, wherein said condition furthercomprises an operation for being executed to determine said condition.9. The method of claim 8, wherein said operation comprises retrievinginformation from a database.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein saidinformation is related to a previous action by a user interacting withthe limited resource device.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein saidinformation is subscriber information.
 12. The method of claim 1,wherein at least information about said event is stored.
 13. The methodof claim 12, wherein said information is analyzed during said analyzingof said event for applying said at least one rule.
 14. A system formanagement of provisioning and using a dynamic content, the systemcomprising: a messaging system for communicating between a limitedresources devices (LRD) a provisioning platform and a rule engine; themessaging system adapted to: receive an event associated with a dynamiccontent request from an LRD application; evaluate the event usingsequential processing according to one or more application-specificpolicy defining business rules associated with said LRD application,said policy defined business rules being structured according to an ECA(event-condition-action) model, such that each rule is triggered by anevent, and wherein said rule engine evaluates a condition to determinewhether an action should be executed; and interact with the LRDaccording to said evaluation.